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Creaking infrastructure
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This Link is located in the Public Channel The Economist - Full Print Edition.
Posted by MyPropsMonkey 1 year 98 days ago (feedproxy.google.com). Views: 16
Tags: economics politics |
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Infrastructure is India’s biggest handicap
TO KNOW why 1,000 Indian children die of diarrhoeal sickness every day, take a wary stroll along the Ganges in Varanasi. As it enters the city, Hinduism’s sacred river contains 60,000 faecal coliform bacteria per 100 millilitres, 120 times more than is considered safe for bathing. Four miles downstream, with inputs from 24 gushing sewers and 60,000 pilgrim-bathers, the concentration is 3,000 times over the safety limit. In places, the Ganges becomes black and septic. Corpses, of semi-cremated adults or enshrouded babies, drift slowly by.
India’s sanitation is execrable. By one estimate, only 13% of the sewage its 1.1 billion people produce is treated. An estimated 700m Indians have no access to a proper toilet. Water-borne diseases caused by poor sanitation are a big reason why India’s children are so malnourished. This might sound familiar. Almost a century ago Mohandas Gandhi disparaged a book about India by Katherine Mayo, an American novelist, as a “drain-inspector’s report”. India needs to follow a simple mantra: “Fewer inspectors, more drains”. ...
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